No-bake Nutella Cookies

As you all know, I have a bit of an unhealthy relationship with Pinterest.

I have this little routine where I roam the pages of the Food and Drink boards, repinning recipes to my heart's delight. And then, when the mood strikes me to bake something new and awesome (Which, obviously, strikes very frequently), I'll go onto my Pinterest boards and find something to try out.

This recipe was something I remember baking years ago as a kid in a baking class I took one year. I then found it on Pinterest, and decided to give it another go.

No regrets.

Here is the recipe (From Chef In Training):

- 2 cups sugar

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/2 cup margarine

- 4 tablespoons cocoa

- 2 and 1/2 cup quick oats

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup nutella (You could use peanut butter instead if you'd rather have Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies)

Cook the sugar, milk, margarine, and cocoa over moderate heat until the mixture comes to a full boil, and then cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add oats, vanilla and nutella. Mix until combined. Spoon onto parchment paper and let cool and firm up. Enjoy!

You'll notice the author from Chef at Training calls these cookies "Gorilla Poops." You'll also notice I do not. Ew.

Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Have you heard of white chili?

If you're anything like me, and you lurk food blogs and endlessly repin food posts on pinterest, and you even stalk the food section on reddit.com...

... Wait, only me?

Anyway. I've been hearing a great deal about white chili, which is a type of chili with more of a creamy/brothy base, rather than a tomato-y base.

So I went through many, MANY recipes until I found one I liked, and adapted it to fit my pantry!

Here it is (Adapted from food.com):

- 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 2 cans white kidney beans (You can also use great northern or navy beans... or whatever bean you have!)

- 2 cans corn

- 2 cans sliced mushrooms

- 1 envelope taco seasoning

- one medium onion, chopped

- 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

- 1 can chicken broth

- 1/2 cup sour cream

Adaptation Explanations: I used navy beans in my original recipe, but I didn't like the texture, so I would definitely recommend using kidney beans instead. I also added extra corn (Because who doesn't like corn?), omitted a can of green chilies (Because they are really pricey, but if you have the means, go for it!), added the mushrooms (Because I wanted some veggie in there- and yes, I classify mushrooms as vegetables) and added an onion.

Place the chicken, beans, corn, mushrooms and onion in the slow cooker. In a separate bowl, combine taco seasoning, soup and chicken broth. Pour the mixture over the other ingredients. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Before serving, stir the chili to break up the chicken, and add the 1/2 cup of sour cream. Enjoy!!

My husband was seriously skeptical of this chili. He devoured it. And also made shadow puppets while I was trying to take pictures of it.

Sigh.

Snicker-chip-doodle Cookies

I love cookies.

I mean, I SERIOUSLY love cookies. I've made my fair share of cookie recipes, and while there is nothing wrong with chocolate chip cookies, or snickerdoodles, or any of those lovely classics, I definitely like interesting cookies.

So, when I saw a recipe for these guys, I pretty much bolted to the kitchen and started making them immediately.

They did not disappoint.

Here is the recipe (Adapted from Jessica's recipe at How Sweet Eats):

- 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 and 3/4 cups flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tbsp milk

- 1/2 cup chocolate chips

- 2/3 cup toffee chips (eg skor bits)

for coating cookies in: 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

I slightly adapted the recipe, because I like my cookies chip-y, and because I found the cinnamon-sugar coating for the cookies too cinnamon-y. You probably don't even need a full 1/4 cup of sugar.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, for about 5 minutes. Then, add in egg and vanilla, mixing for about 2 minutes. Next, add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in the 2 tbsp of milk, and if you find the dough is still crumbly, continue adding milk until the dough comes together, 1 tbsp at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Once the 30 minutes is over, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine your sugar and cinnamon for dipping in a small bowl. Take the dough and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls, and then roll in the sugar mixture. Place on baking sheet (I cook mine on parchment paper, because I find the toffee chips burn unless baked on parchment.) Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Try not to eat them all yourself. Although, seriously, that's much easier said than done...